Sensex, Nifty at new highs on US growth, Japan stimulus

Indian stocks on Friday galloped to new highs with benchmark Sensex surging 519.50 points to 27,865.83 and Nifty soaring 153 points to cross the 8,300 mark tracking a strong global rally on robust US economic growth and a surprise ramping up of Japan's monetary easing programme.

Besides, continued inflows on solid corporate earnings and optimism over India's growth also helped markets boost investor wealth by nearly Rs 1.5 lakh crore in a single session.

Six stocks rose for every 10 traded on BSE today with capital goods, oil & gas, IT and power scrips leading rally.

The 30-share Sensex opened on a strong footing and rose to new intra-day record high of 27,894.32.

It settled for the day at 27,865.83, a new record at closing, by gaining 519.50 points or 1.90 per cent.

Its previous record closing high was 27,346.33 reached in yesterday's trade. In four days, Sensex has gained over 1,100 points.

For the week, it rose by over 1,000 points. "Much-needed reforms from the new government, strong Q2 performance by India Inc, Fed's low-interest rate regime combined with Bank of Japan's sudden stimulus announcement, gave markets across a sentiment boost," said Hiren Dhakan, Associate Fund Manager, Bonanza Portfolio.

Sentiment was also boosted after the US released forecast-beating economic growth data on Thursday.

The world's biggest economy grew 3.5 percent in the September quarter.

Of the 30-share Sensex, 29 scrips led by HDFC, GAIL, L&T, Tata Power, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy, Infosys, Cipla and Coal India gained. SBI, ONGC, RIL, Axis Bank and Sun Pharma also rose.

However, Bharti Airtel finished lower.

The NSE Nifty, comprising 50 shares, breached the 8,300-mark for the first time to hit a new lifetime high of 8,330.75.

It also ended at fresh all-time high of 8,322.20, surging 153 points, or 1.87 per cent. Previously, it touched an intra-day record high of 8,181.55 yesterday.

Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,257.49 crore yesterday. Asia was led by Japan's Nikkei that surged 4.6 per cent while indices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and China rose in 1-2 percent range.

European also surged in late morning trade. Sectorwide, the BSE Capital Goods index gained the most by rising 2.66 per cent, followed by Oil & Gas index by 2.19 per cent, IT index 1.96 per cent, Power index 1.94 per cent, Metal index 1.91 and Banking index 1.76 per cent.

Indicating strong revival of retail interest, midcap index gained 1.24 per cent higher and the small-cap barometer rose by 0.96 per cent.